


Can't Escape Shadows in Space

by Avengerz



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [1]
Category: Star Trek, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Space Nerd Tony Stark, Star Trek AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 10:50:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4703303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avengerz/pseuds/Avengerz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No matter the universe, Tony always finds himself struggling to escape Howard's shadow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Escape Shadows in Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pensversusswords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pensversusswords/gifts).



> Definitely not my best writing, but I got inspired by [pensversusswords](http://pensversusswords.tumblr.com)'s talk about Tony and Space and Tony loving Space so here we are.

Tony likes to think that things would have been very different if his mother hadn’t accepted that research position on Geneva II. Because if she hadn’t accepted it, she would never have gotten on that space shuttle, and it would never have run into a Klingon warship, and she wouldn’t be dead. And if she wasn’t dead, well… a lot of things would be different.

Tony had loved space, when he was younger. He’d spend hours in vid-calls with Maria, because even if his mother was almost always off-planet, she never hesitated in showing her love and sharing her love of science when she got the chance. Tony had been entranced, and when he was still young enough that his teachers asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would reply without hesitation. “I wanna study space and planets. Like my mom!”

But what about your dad, his teachers would inevitably ask. Why not follow the footsteps of the renowned Chief Engineer Stark?  
Tony had no adequate response for that. Howard hadn’t been cruel to Tony, just distant. Neglectful, even, with how he was rarely around even when on Earth and not searching the farthest reaches of the galaxy for the lost ship of his dear old buddy Steve. But although Tony and Howard were far from friends, their relationship wasn’t truly awful. Tony just liked the idea of studying strange species and geology more than messing around with warp cores.

But then Maria died just weeks before Tony’s fifth birthday, and things changed dramatically.

Looking back on it, Tony thought it might have been his eyes. He had his mother’s eyes, or so he’d often been told. And her gently curly hair, and her bright enthusiasm for discovery. Maybe it was too similar for Howard, so fresh from the loss of his wife.

Or maybe it wasn’t that, but the end result was this: Tony’s dreams of learning about what strange new worlds had to offer were through. His birthday gifts were a stack of engineering textbooks and a cuff around the ear. Howard was no longer content with Tony’s advanced track through academics, and pushed him to study more, and faster, be better, be smarter, come on boy, you’re five years old, this is simple physics and Tony found himself stumbling into a world where his innocent desire to learn was unacceptable unless he was channeling that learning into becoming the best engineer possible.

Tony enjoyed engineering, sure, and he was good at it, but a dissertation on deuterium fusion reactors never quite sparked that same delight that a research paper on a species of telepathic bushes discovered on Adelphous IV could. But Howard was the only family Tony had, now, and if the only way Tony could garner his attention was by building a miniature impulse drive, then Tony was young enough and desperate enough for love that he did it.

Then Tony grew up, and came to realize just how much of a cold, calculating bastard his father truly was. The alcohol Howard began drinking by the bucket load after Maria’s death certainly didn’t help any. The final straw broke when Tony came home from school to discover the tiny robot he had built to collect and examine soil samples had been destroyed during one of Howard’s drunken rages.

So at age fifteen, Tony left California and never looked back.

When Howard died, years later, Commander Stane came to find him. Tony liked Obie, but when the First Officer tried to convince him to abandon the life he had built in Massachusetts and MIT and replace Howard as a ‘Fleet engineer, Tony sent him off with a not-so-eloquent “fuck you.”

And so for a time, Tony managed to live his own life. Howard’s teachings were ingrained enough that he got PhD's in Aeronautical Engineering and Physics (In Space) but he also snuck in a minor in Extra Terrestrial Biology.

But Tony was lost. He had no purpose (besides perhaps acting as much of a fuck-up as possible in Howard’s memory). Then came along that fateful bar fight. Then came along Admiral Fury.

Tony had intended to send him off with the same negative response that he had greeted every other potential recruiter, but then. But then.

But then Fury challenged Tony to do better than Howard, and really, that just wasn’t fair. Tony rose to the challenge, of course. He’d be the best fucking engineer Star Fleet had ever seen.

And at least, some small part of him whispered, he’d be able to see space.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll probably write more for this later. In the meantime, you can come check out my new Marvel blog [!](http://anthonyfuckingstark.tumblr.com)


End file.
